Saturday, July 21, 2007

Book 8: "Harry Potter and The People Too Old To Be Dressing Up Like Harry Potter Characters!"

They were seriously freaking me out tonight. Grown people playing dress up and waiting for the Harry Potter book to go on sale.

Don't get me wrong, I'm going to read the the book. I just won't be wearing a costume while I'm doing it.

Yeah, I know. A grown man reading Harry Potter?

Honestly, I read a lot of junk that I regret having read and I have a stack of "good" books sitting on my desk and scattered around the house. The Harry Potter books are fun. I starting reading the series when I was looking for something to share with my youngest. She got bored with the series after the third book, but I kept going.

I want to know what happens.

Tonight I was at "The Grove" coaching an Aurora (or is that Auror) trainee and helping to cover the festivities of the book going on sale at the Barnes and Noble's book store.

Yup, you wouldn't catch me dressing up in wizardry robes, but that flat out wasn't true for a lot of the people who showed up to buy the book.

Capes were popular and so were lightning bolts on foreheads. Wands, yellow and burgundy scarves, school girl uniforms, and black rimmed glasses were a pretty common sight.

It looked like someone had started a fashion trend as a joke, but it caught on and now all these people are wearing it and the designer is laughing (and probably counting huge stacks of money).

While the Potter fans were eagerly waiting for the book to go on sale, I ran camera for a couple of liveshots, then called it a week and made my way home.

Lots of people wanted to know what we were covering tonight. Some of them laughed and made snide comments about the fans waiting for the release of a book. They weren't making fun of the way the fans were dressed. They were making fun of them for being excited about a book (of all things).

That's the world we live in. People who read and set a great example for young kids by showing them it's okay to read, they get mocked and ridiculed.

I think about this a lot. The world could be better. It could easily be better, but I'm probably preaching to the choir here. All I want is for everybody to be smarter. That could start with reading (I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter what).

Oh, and since I'm a seriously flawed person myself, I'm still going to make fun of grown ups who dress like wizards.You don't need to dress like a fictional character to set a good example.

(pssst - Go easy on me if there's typos. I'm half asleep and looking forward to finding the other half.)